1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to delegating management of a financial transaction account, and more particularly to enabling a holder of a transaction account linked to a financial transaction instrument to delegate a specific level of management access of an account to a designated assistant.
2. Related Art
A business executive who has a financial transaction instrument associated with a transaction account (e.g., a credit card) may wish to have an executive assistant attend to the details of managing the account, such as reviewing and verifying transactions, making inquiries regarding specific transactions, etc. However, there has been until now a lack of clear, systematic procedures for delegating management of a transaction account to an executive assistant. Thus, account holders must often resort to informal means for effecting such delegation, which can be cumbersome and inefficient and may not provide the proper procedural or legal basis for such delegation.
One conventional method for informally delegating management of an account to an assistant is for the account holder to send a letter or facsimile to the card issuer requesting that the assistant be given access to the account. However, such correspondence, because it is composed by the account holder, who in most cases is not expert in the applicable legal considerations, often does not meet the legal requirements or the card issuer's procedural requirements for proper authorization. Account holders may also contact the card issuer by telephone to request delegation of management to an assistant, but again, this informal communication may not meet all of the procedural or legal requirements for proper authorization and may be unacceptable to the card issuer due to concerns regarding account security, as well. In addition, the lack of a systematic way of maintaining information relating to the designation of assistants may result in this information being inadvertently overlooked by those responsible for retrieving account information, which may result in the assistant being denied access to the account information, even where the assistant has been provided with authorization that complies fully with the law and the card issuer's requirements.
Another conventional method for informally delegating management of an account to an assistant involves the account holder giving their online user-identifier and password to the assistant to allow access to the transaction account via the Internet. However, this raises account security concerns and may violate the online access user agreement between the account holder and the card issuer. Furthermore, under this scenario, the account holder cannot control the level of access granted to the assistant. The assistant may be allowed to perform functions that the account holder does not wish to delegate, such as changing the mailing address for the account, requesting a credit line increase, applying for other transaction accounts, etc. Even worse, an account holder might give the assistant personal information, such as their social security number, and may instruct the assistant to telephone the card issuer pretending to be the account holder. Such an approach would almost certainly not meet procedural or legal requirements for proper authorization and raises the specter of identity theft and other serious security concerns.
As mentioned above, among the shortcomings of these ad hoc methods is the concern that such informal approaches do not satisfy all of the procedural or legal requirements to effectuate proper delegation of transaction account management. In addition, these methods lack a systematic mechanism for the account holder to monitor or otherwise control the management functions being carried out on their behalf. In particular, these conventional methods do not allow the account holder to control the level of access granted to the assistant. Moreover, there is at present no convenient mechanism for an account holder to establish, change, or revoke delegation of account management, for instance, via an online system.
Given the foregoing, what is needed is a system, method and computer program product for delegating management of a financial transaction account to a designated assistant. Specifically, there exists a need for formalized and systematic delegation of management of the transaction account by an account holder to a designated assistant, in a manner that satisfies the procedural and legal requirements associated with such authorization. There is also a need for a system that allows the account holder to set a level of access for the delegation, such that the assistant only has access to a predetermined set of account management functions. Further still, there is a need for a system that allows an account holder to establish, change, or revoke delegation of account management via an online system.